Police: Grand jury indicts mom of kid shot in eye

LAS CRUCES – The mother of a child who was shot in the eye with a BB gun in September has been charged with child abuse, according to a news release from the Las Cruces Police Department.

Yessika Ordunez, 21, of Las Cruces, was indicted by a Doña Ana County grand jury on one count of negligent child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, the release said.

The grand jury handed down the indictment Thursday in 3rd Judicial District Court in Las Cruces.

Ordunez is accused of negligently allowing her 16-month-old son to be in the custody of her boyfriend, 30-year-old Lorenzo Ordaz, also of Las Cruces, who allegedly shot Ordunez’s son in the right eye as he attempted to reload a BB gun on Sept. 30 outside his mobile home.

Ordaz, who is not the father of the child, was arrested Oct. 2. He was indicted Oct. 15 on one count of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm.

Police were dispatched to the home about 10 p.m. after neighbors reported hearing a child cry. When officers arrived on scene, they found the child “screaming with a wound to the right eye,” court documents state.

Ordaz had fled the scene before officers arrived.

The child was airlifted to El Paso Children’s Hospital for treatment.

According to the Ordaz’s indictment, “The child suffered a severe injury and lost his eye as a result.”

When questioned by police, Ordunez gave at least six different accounts of how the injury occurred, according to court documents.

First, she said the child had been left unattended inside the house for “several minutes,” retrieved the gun from a table in the living room and shot himself in the eye. Later, she claimed the child had been struck by a ricocheting BB pellet.

In another interview with police, Ordunez said Ordaz was holding her son while he fired the BB gun — described by police as a CO2-powered handgun — outside the home. Ordaz released the child from his hold as he reached for additional BB pellets, which were near the man’s feet, Ordunez said.

At some point thereafter, the weapon discharged, striking the child the in the right eye, according to Ordunez's statement to police.

After the shooting, Ordunez said she allowed Ordaz to “hand” the child to a neighbor, who called 911. As he handed the child to the woman, Ordaz allegedly said, “I gotta go, the police are going to arrest me,” according to the witness' statement to police.

Police later found the CO2-powered handgun inside Ordaz’s home. It contained a partially loaded magazine “with one BB in the chamber and a charged CO2 cartridge,” according to the court documents.